Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Introducing Tire Drags To My Training...

Things suddenly got real for me when I signed up for the
Mogollon Monster 100 race. How was I going to run in that type of terrain when I
live in terrain that’s like this______________________. It's still 3 months away, but I knew I’d have to get creative with my
training.

I’ve made several trips to the hill country to get some
running in rugged elevated trails, but I can’t afford to make those trips
weekly (as much as I may want to). There are options: Running back and forth over an overpass
gets old very quickly. The dreadmill, you ask? Don't even get me started with it. As boring as it may be, it's helped me too, but I felt like there had to be more options out there.

At a friend’s encouragement, I decided a month ago to add
tire dragging to my workouts. I was a little intimidated because I’m not the
strongest person and wondered if I would even be able to drag this tire. I had no choice but to do it.

The 1st thing I did was tell my dad to be on the
lookout for any tire on the side of the road. Being from the RGV, unfortunately,
people dump tires on the side of the road almost everywhere. Within a day, my
dad called me that he found 2 tractor tires. “Ummm. I was thinking something
smaller.” Was my response. “Maybe, like a small car’s tire.”

By the end of the day, he called that he’d found 2. By the
way, I was making 1 for myself and 1 for my friend, David, so this was perfect.

I've seen others wrap the rope around their waist, so I guess the belt could be optional, but this looks too painful/uncomfortable. I even read somewhere somebody posted on FB that a belt for this could be made from duct tape. Nevertheless, I suggest a belt.

I have done 4 workouts (1 x week) the last month using my
tire drag. The 1st drag was 1 mile (to test it out) on the street in
front of my apartment. The last 3 weeks I’ve increased the workout by 2 miles. I've done runs of 4, 6 and 8 miles.

In my opinion, the street / paved is a little bit easier
than gravel / dirt. 3 out of 4 of my workouts have been in the dirt next to a
canal.

The Verdict:

I feel like my quads are getting stronger, andI think my running is getting stronger too. I’ve
made 2 trips to the Hill of Life in Austin in 3 weeks and have done the similar
workout (repeats) but with different results. The 1st time we did
repeats, I really struggled. They’ve difficult and I earned every single step. This last time, it was still difficult, but I felt more comfortable out
there. I think I was even hiking “with a purpose” as I like to call it…and let’s
be honest: I hike the uphills on most ultras.

At the 5+ mile point of dragging my tire, my quads feel like that
indescribable feeling towards the end of a long trail run when you are drudging
up a huge incline. That’s the only other time I’ve felt that way. Simulating that feeling's gotta
be a good thing.

It feels as if my core is getting an intense workout...almost like I'm dragging it and doing crunches at the same time. I've been ending my tire drag with a couple miles to cool down (without the tire). At the onset, I'm flying without the added resistance, but suddenly, within several hundred meters, it kicks in...the fatigue. It's running on tired legs, I keep telling myself.

The plan is to increase my weekly tire drag run by 2 miles each week. Tonight, I'm due for 10 miles. I remember that 1st time when I barely could muster 1 mile. It's been 5 weeks since that evening. No joke.

I won’t discount that fact that it might be all in my mind,
but even if that’s the case, I’ll take it.

I definitely recommend tire dragging – especially for those
of us (as we are fondly known) flatlanders.

Hola and welcome to the (mis) adventures of a (wannabe) ultra runner. Who am I? Running is a part of who I am. I run to get on grip on life, work, people & why they do what they do. Most importantly, I love the feeling of complete physical exhaustion. You could say I’m obsessed with everything running & you might be too (to an extent) if you are here.

During the day, I am a Middle School Special Education Teacher and Coach Cross Country and/or Track. The best part of my day is that I get to run with speedy 7th or 8th graders. Somebody’s gotta supervise from the back of the pack.

I hope you enjoy reading this but if you don’t, that’s ok too. Let me warn you that there will be typos and/or grammatical errors since I’m doing this quickly, randomly and probably in the middle of the night/early morning during my bouts with insomnia.